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Fire Ecology Research

This web resource lists research projects related to detailed studies of fire history and fire ecology in the Sierra Nevada forests, the California shrublands, and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Researchers at the Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) are making contributions to this effort through Knowledge, forming the basis for new More...

  • A high-intensity chaparral fire in California.

Cryptobiotic Soils: Holding the Place in Place

Cryptobiotic soil crusts, consisting of soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses, play an important ecological roles in the arid Southwest. Cryptobiotic crusts increase the stability of otherwise easily eroded soils, increase water infiltration in regions that receive little precipitation, and increase fertility in soils often limited in essential More...

  • Filaments of Microcoleus vaginatus (x 3000), the dominant organism in the crust. Individual cells ab

Conservation Genetics: Plants

This web page presents samples of genetics and genomics research from the USGS Biological Resources Discipline about the conservation genetics of plants.

  • John A. Young sampling American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) for genetic analysis.

Native Plants, Insects and Ecosystems

The geographical isolation of the Hawaiian Islands has resulted in the evolution of a highly endemic biota: approximately 80 percent of Hawaii's plants, 100 percent of its forest birds, and 67 percent of its arthropods are found nowhere else in the world. But human colonization of the Islands has severely impacted native plant and animal More...

  • Image of Haleakala silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense macrocephalum)

Vegetation Communities in Relation to Environmental Gradients in Shenandoah National Park

This report documents the results of a 4 year research project to assess and map vegetation communities of Shenandoah National Park. The result of the project is a new map of vegetation distribution in Shenandoah National Park based on U.S. National Vegetation Classification System standards. Additional products include a classification scheme of More...

  • Map image of a vegetation community

Nonnative Grass Invasions and Fire in the Sonoran Desert

This issues overview and its resources deal with the spread of nonnative grasses in the Sonoran desert of Arizona has increased the risk of devastating fires by ignited fuel. The saguaro cactuses and desert tortoises have suffered catastrophic population losses as a result of these fires fueled by nonnative grasses. Read more about nonnative More...

  • Burned saguaros and yuccas, 1995 Rio Fire in the Phoenix area